The
12th annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, taking place
April 25 to May 1 in New York, puts Mexico in the spotlight this year, with authors
from the country being featured alongside an international roster of more than
150 writers and thinkers.
The decision to showcase Mexican literature was taken long before U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump made his infamous remark about Mexicans and touted his desire to build a wall between the United States and its southern neighbour.
The decision to showcase Mexican literature was taken long before U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump made his infamous remark about Mexicans and touted his desire to build a wall between the United States and its southern neighbour.
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| Festival director Jakab Orsos. (Photo by Beowulf Sheehan) |
“When I selected Mexico, I felt this thing in the air – it’s the gypsy in me,” said Orsós, who is from Hungary. “Then that whole narrative made it clear that this ridiculous negativity was there. After I heard it, I thought: oh yeah, now we’re going to be talking.”
Orsós
said that from its start, in 2005, the festival hasn’t shied away from difficult or
uncomfortable issues – whether that involved political, social or philosophical
topics, and he said the public seemed to appreciate this.
“Literature
can be a communal activity: after you spend time reading or writing, you come
out from that room and exchange information and ideas, and that’s what we try
to do with the festival … which is really a festival of ideas incorporating
different genres,” he added.
Entitled
“Renegotiating the Narratives”, the event will explore Mexico’s “rich culture
and burning social issues through a series of events that invite audiences to
rethink widely accepted narratives on topics such as national identity, the
border, migration, as well as systematic corruption and free expression in
today’s Mexico,” PEN said in a release.
Some
of Mexico’s leading thinkers and authors will provide insights, including
Carmen Boullosa, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Lydia Cacho, Yuri Herrera, Elena Poniatowska and Sabina Berman. The latter, a playwright and essayist, will be co-curator of the Mexican program alongside Orsós.
“This year’s focus on Mexico allows us to present new perspectives on some of
the urgent sociopolitical issues of our time - perspectives that are often
absent from mainstream cultural forums,” said Orsós.
He
told SWAN that politics relegating Mexico to a “dark corner” were “hypocritical”
especially when one considers that Mexican culture and history are so “amazing”.
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| Yudai Kamisato |
In addition to the Mexican focus, audiences will be treated to a "globally inspired array of conversations, readings, performances and workshops" by leading and emerging authors from around the world, according to the organizers. The line-up includes Caribbean-born novelist Jamaica Kincaid and the Peruvian-born Japanese playwright Yudai Kamisato - whose work explores the problems that immigrants face.
Overall, however, the main theme of the festival will be freedom of expression, Orsós said, as
PEN is an organization that works to protect the rights of writers and artists to
freely express themselves.
“The
most important core value is to promote and advocate for freedom of expression,”
he said. “This is why I came on board [as director six years ago] because of my
background, growing up in Eastern Europe and being a former journalist.
“We
all believe that without freedom, without the essential idea and concept to be
able to express yourself freely … then everything becomes corrupt and twisted,”
he added. “In
order to straighten things up and live a fuller life, you have to have that
basic right.” - A.M. / SWAN
Follow SWAN on Twitter @mckenzie_ale
Follow SWAN on Twitter @mckenzie_ale
